The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for forming laminated resin articles by way of casting of laser beam or plasma or electron beam onto photosetting resin liquid or thermosetting resin liquid.
A resin article has been obtained by casting laser beam onto photosetting resin liquid. In a conventional arrangement, as shown in FIG. 6, a resin article on an elevator stage 3 is formed through lamination of photosetting resin. The elevator stage 3 is set in a liquid bath 2 containing photosetting resin liquid 1. More specifically, when a first layer of the resin article 4 is to be formed, the elevator stage 3 is held at an upper position in the vicinity of the liquid level of the resin liquid 1 by a driving mechanism 5. Laser beam 8 supplied via a laser beam controller 7 from a laser oscillator 6 partially scans in two dimensions and hardens a part of the resin liquid 1 on the elevator stage 3. Since the driving mechanism 5 lowers the elevator stage 3 by 0.1-0.2 mm intervals, the laser beam 8 sequentially sets a second layer and succeeding layers of resin over the first layer. The laminated resin article 4 is produced in this manner.
In the prior art, if the to-be-laminated article 4 is, for example, in the shape of a screw as in FIG. 7, the target shape with a plurality of vanes 9 cannot be efficiently obtained although the laser beam scans in two dimensions in directions of arrows.
When a thin portion of the article 4 assumes a vertical posture as indicated in FIG. 8A, a step difference 10 generated between the layers is small enough to form the resin article 4 relatively accurately. In contrast, when a thin portion of the resin article 4 is inclined as shown in FIG. 8B, the step difference 10 appears clearly, whereby the formed resin article with the screw-like shape has many step differences 10 as is illustrated in FIG. 9.